US, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators to meet in UAE for security talks

Ukrainian, US and Russian officials will hold security talks in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the Kremlin said, following a meeting of top US negotiators with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on a US-drafted plan to end the Ukraine war.

Diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II have gained pace in recent months, though Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.

US negotiators, led by envoy Steve Witkoff, talked with the Russian leader in Moscow into the early hours of Friday, according to a Kremlin statement.

Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters their discussions had been "useful in every respect".

Witkoff and the US team are next flying to Abu Dhabi, where talks are expected to continue.

A Russian delegation, headed by General Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, will also head there "in the coming hours", according to Ushakov.

"It was agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi," Ushakov added.

"We are genuinely interested in resolving (the conflict) through political and diplomatic means," he said, but added: "Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives... on the battlefield."

Witkoff previously said he believed the two sides were "down to one issue", without elaborating.

Video published by the Kremlin showed a smiling Putin shaking hands with Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum.

The high-stakes meeting came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a draft deal was "nearly, nearly ready" and that he and Trump had agreed on the issue of post-war security guarantees.

He also said the UK and France had already committed to forces on the ground.

Zelensky said Ukraine's delegation at the UAE meeting would be led by Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Rustem Umerov, and would include Lieutenant General Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Ukrainian armed forces.

Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country's eastern Donbas region as part of a deal.

But Kyiv has warned that ceding ground will embolden Moscow and says it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from launching a renewed assault.